The role of parametric design in gaining computational and creative thought in architectural basic education

Information technologies, as used in every sector and field has taken its place in architecture education. It is known that the visual, auditory and intellectual communications environments for computer technologies increase the learning speed and creative power in addition to increasing the learning capacity in the basic architectural education. The spatial analysis and basic analysis which are based on technical calculations for the architectural design makes it possible for computer and communication tools, contribute significantly to the architectural profession and education. It is known that cognitive doctrines and concepts such as computational design, parametric and kinetic designs and artificial intelligence products improve the algorithmic thinking performance and complex design understanding of architectural education. The main aim of this study is to examine the effect of parametric and computational thinking on the ability of creative and also relational thinking in architectural students. By teaching parametric and computational thinking systems, students at basic architectural level will be able to produce creative and unique designs that can vary against environmental factors as well as increasing their creative thinking power. By getting the production of architectural forms, the reflection of every imagined object can be embodied. In particular, the expression of non-linear, amorphous geometric shapes will be achieved more accurately and in a shorter time than other design tools with the help of parametric based digital technological tools. At the same time, by increasing the number of variations generated, a variety of products can be introduced in a shorter period of time. The ability of thinking creatively will be improved by the creation of numerous qualified alternative products. In this research, students' current design status in architectural education, their ability to think creatively, architectural project design processes, states to express architectural designs, the ability to design and express curved geometric shapes or amorphous models, the number of design product and in order to question its competence in creating a creative project, 79 students studying in the first and second grades of Karabük University Department of Architecture were tested. The data of the activities were entered into IBM SPSS Statistics 22 program and exploratory factor analysis (AFA) was performed and the reliability and validity of the scale were analyzed. Then, the pre-test and post-test processes were compared with the T-test and compared, and the students' creative and computational thinking skills were statistically demonstrated. Significant results were found by analyzing the data.